Contents

About Sheeva

Sheeva belongs to the ancient race of the Shokan, a race of mighty four armed half Human, half Dragon beings from Outworld that are the archenemies of the Centaurian race. Like all of her race, she possesses a tall, muscular build, and four arms. Notably, Sheeva served as the personal bodyguard of Queen Sindel during Shao Kahn's failed invasion of Earthrealm.

Combat characteristics

As a Shokan, Sheeva possesses incredible strength. She retains the common Shokan ability to summon fireballs and utilize a teleport stomp. However, unlike her fellow Shokan warriors Goro and Kintaro, she can use the latter to merely stomp the ground without teleporting, causing damage. Also, Sheeva's fireballs seem to be more powerful than those of other characters, as evidenced in Armageddon, where they can knock opponents to the ground, rather than simply knocking them back.

Signature moves

Death From Above: Sheeva jumps high into the air and off-screen, only to come crashing down on her opponent, then jumps up and down, crushing her opponent under her bare feet. This is called Jump Stomp in MK 2011. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:A, MK 2011)

The enhanced version is called Jump Crush. It is slightly more damaging and is armored at the beginning of the attack.

Searing Blast: Sheeva launches a fireball, which can knock the opponent to the ground. In MK 2011, this is called Fireball. MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:A, MK 2011)

The enhanced version is called Fire Blast which is larger, slightly more damaging, and knocks the opponent back further.

Furious Stomp: Sheeva stomps on the ground hard, knocking the opponent back and causing additional damage. In MK 2011, this is called Ground Pound. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:A, MK 2011)

The enhanced version is called Ground Smash. Sheeva stomps on the ground twice instead of once.

Untamed Fury: Sheeva lunges forward, grabs the opponent with her lower arms, hits them repeatedly in the face with her upper arms, then smacks them across the stage. This is called Grab N Punch in MK 2011. (MK:A, MK 2011)

The enhanced version is named Untamed Fury. Instead of ending the attack with a punch, she throws the opponent across the screen. This move also has a backwards throw and has armored frames at the beginning.

Anti-Air Grab: Sheeva grabs an opponent from mid-air, slams them on the ground, and stomps on their chest and groin. (MK 2011)

The enhanced version is called Power Anti-Air. It is slightly more damaging and has very strong armored frames.

Low Grab: Sheeva grabs a ducked opponent and slams them behind her, as well as allowing for a juggle. This was her throw in MK3/MKT. (MK 2011)

The enhanced version is called Anti-Duck Throw. It is slightly more damaging and has strong armored frames.

X-Ray Move - Slam Dance: Sheeva stomps the ground causing the opponent to go in the air and land in front of her face first, as they lay on the ground, she smashes their head, crushing it. She then tramples their back, crushing their spine, ribs, and organs. She then slams the opponent behind her. (MK 2011)

Other Moves

Throw: Sheeva grabs her foe using her upper arms, while delivering two body blows using her lower arms. She then either headbutts them away (Forward Throw) or slams them down (Backward Throw). Unlike other characters, her throw does 14 percent damage. (MK 2011)

Stripped Down: Grabbing a handful of flesh in each of her four fists, Sheeva pulls her opponent's skin to the floor, leaving a bloody, skeletal husk. In MK 2011, she pulls the skin away in two pieces, in an upward motion. She then kicks the opponent's skinless body away, then lifts the skin in victory. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK 2011)

Stomping Fatality: Sheeva launches straight up, heading off of the screen, then comes down from the air above her opponent, landing with a brutal assault of stomps, Only on Game Boy version. (MK3)

HammerHead: Sheeva brings her fists down upon the opponent's head in succession, driving them into the ground. (MK3, UMK3, MKT)

Lend A Hand: Sheeva rips her opponent's arms off with her lower arms, then slaps them twice in the face with their severed arms, the second slap breaking their neck. Oddly enough, they still scream after their neck is snapped from the finisher. She then kicks them, and proceeds to clap with their severed arms. (MK 2011)

Movie appearance

Sheeva, played by Marjean Holden, appears in the second Mortal Kombat movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. The shooting script included a lengthy fight scene with her and Raiden (James Remar), but it was omitted during filming; instead she was merely squashed by a falling cage as she prepares to fight Liu Kang and Kitana in Shao Kahn's throne room (she does, however, use her prefight stance).

Sheeva does appear in other scenes of the movie, but her role was less than memorable in most respects. She had no fight scenes besides a brief quarrel with Motaro. The movie did acknowledge that she was the personal protector of Sindel and her family, which she mentions to Kahn in her personal endorsement for him to appoint her as general of his Extermination Squads.

TV appearance

Sheeva had a small role in the animated series, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, in which she possessed a long-standing hatred of Raiden, which was apparantly mutual. She referred to her opponents as "darlings" (in a manner similar to Zsa Zsa Gabor). She was voiced by Dawnn Lewis.

Trivia

Sheeva was the first Shokan to be playable as a standard character, and the second overall after the ability to unlock Goro in the Game Boy port of Mortal Kombat.

Sheeva's sprites in MK3 were made using a stop-motion puppet, similar to Goro, Kintaro and Motaro.

Sheeva was the very first character in the series to bleed green-colored blood. She maintained this even through MKT, where Goro and Kintaro still bled red blood. In every appearance made since, Sheeva bleeds red blood.

Sheeva is the only standard character in Mortal Kombat 3 and it updates other than Liu Kang to have a character-specific voice set.

Sheeva can appear a sub-boss in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, always appearing at the end of the female-only ladder, right before Blaze. Despite this, she doesn't have any alterations to elevate her strength or ability, and even appears in another ladder as a regular character.

This makes Sheeva the first female boss in the Mortal Kombat, not until Mortal Kombat 11 where Kronika will be considered the first female actual boss in the history.

Sheeva was left out of the roster of selectable fighters in the SNES and Sega Genesis version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. However, she wasn't totally removed, as she appears (although invisible) as a glitch character in the SNES version of UMK3. Her voice is also audible in the sound test of the Genesis version. There are still leftover sprites of her character in the SNES version, seen when performing a Fatality on glitch Sheeva such as Kung Lao's Hat Slice, Reptile's Tongue Lash, or Cyrax's Helicopter Fatality will reveal Sheeva's MK3 standing sprite. If any character performs a Babality on glitch Sheeva, she will turn into her MK3 baby sprite.

Though Sheeva is glitched in the SNES version of UMK3, she could still perform two of her MK3 Fatalities by turning on the Easy Finisher option via cheat menus.

In MK3 and UMK3, if a Fatality that involved leaving the enemy as a bloody skeleton is used on Sheeva, the resulting skeleton only has two arms. This is rectified in MKT, giving Sheeva a unique four-armed skeleton.

This is repeated in Mortal Kombat (2011), where Sheeva is the only character with a unique four-armed cadaver, which Goro and Kintaro lack due to the fact Fatalities cannot be performed on them.

During early production of Mortal Kombat 3, Sheeva was called "She-Goro", since she did not have an official name yet.

Sheeva, along with Motaro, appears trapped in a cell in the Dark Prison stage of Mortal Kombat: Unchained, although not in Deception.

In MK 2011, if Sheeva receives Baraka's Up The Middle Fatality, her lower arms will not be cut by his blades. The same thing happens with Raiden's Just A Scratch Fatality, Ermac's Mind Over Splatter Fatality, Kitana's Fan Opener Fatality, and Cyrax's Nothing But Net Fatality.

Also, when the Pit Stage Fatality is done on Sheeva, one of her lower arms, depending on the side she was standing on, will hang as if it was impaled by a stake, although only her upper arm is impaled.

However, if Skarlet's Make it Rain Fatality is done on Sheeva, there will be 6 pillars instead of 4, due to the fact Sheeva has four arms. This is the only Fatality modified specifically for Sheeva's lower arms.

Sheeva's Animality in MK3, transforming into a scorpion, was originally planned to be Scorpion's Animality before he was removed from the game; when he was reintroduced in UMK3, he received the penguin Animality. Scorpion would later transform into a scorpion in his MK4 Fatality.

Sheeva was the only playable character (aside from the bosses) in UMK3 that doesn't have a Brutality finisher. This is probably due to the fact that she only appeared in the Arcade and Saturn versions of the game where the Brutality was not established yet and was missing from the SNES and Genesis versions.